Virginia Tech

East Carolina offense player gets tackled by Virginia Tech defense in last nights game.

The ECU Athletics department issued a statement Wednesday explaining the decision of the football team to relocate to Orlando, Florida to avoid Hurricane Florence.

“A decision was made to relocate the East Carolina University football team to Orlando by bus early Wednesday morning. The location was determined based on the track of Hurricane Florence and lodging availability, along with lessons learned from recent past difficulties returning home to an area impacted by widespread flooding,” according to the statement. “Should this be the case again as forecasted, accessibility and transitional logistics for our next game in Tampa become manageable.”

On Tuesday ECU announced it had cancelled its trip to Blacksburg, Virginia for its matchup with No. 13 Virginia Tech due to imminent safety concerns before, during and after the storm.

ECU said it would like for the game to be rescheduled for a later date, but the two teams do not share the same bye week (Virginia Tech is off Oct. 20 and ECU is off Oct. 27) and the Hokies would like to be busy during conference championship week. Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente did not seem interested in adding a game to the Hokies schedule later in the year unless it was ECU.

Virginia Tech seemed unhappy with ECU unilaterally deciding the status of the game on its home field. This was reflected by the statement tweeted out by Virginia Tech Athletic Director Whit Babcock.

“We certainly understand the need for safety, of course, we just felt that tomorrow, making the decision then, would’ve been more responsible and accurate,” Babcock tweeted. “We informed ECU of this multiple times."

Several people on Twitter pointed out the insensitive nature in which the tweet was perceived. Babcock apologized to many accounts, being insensitive wasn’t how he wanted the tweet to come across.

Virginia Tech was also criticized by fans of both the Hokies and the Pirates because of a tweet from the official Virginia Tech football Twitter account. The tweet read the Hokies are waterproof, and said Virginia Tech traveled into the teeth of Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and left with a 34-3 win.

Virginia Tech associate athletic director Pete Morris immediately apologized for the tweet, that was deleted right after it was posted.

ECU’s contract with Virginia Tech says that the “breaching party” must pay a $500,000 payment for backing out of the game.

ECU Chancellor Cecil Staton did not care for the thought of paying that for looking out for the welfare of the student-athletes, saying “sue me” about it Wednesday morning during his talk of the town.

The two teams have played 10 times in the last 11 years and are scheduled to continue playing each year 2025, alternating host schools. Whether the teams continue to play after that is unknown.

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